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Italy's Amalfi Coast

Just south of Naples, we'll experience the breathtaking Amalfi Coast, the trendy resort of Positano, the limoncello charms of Sorrento, the ancient Greek temples at Paestum, and the iridescent Blue Grotto hidden beneath the enchanting Isle of Capri.

Travel Details

Ristorante Delfino

Ristorante Delfino gets their seafood right off the fishermen's boats at Marina Grande, and serves it up in big portions to hungry locals in a quiet and bright pier restaurant. It's lovingly run by effervescent Luisa, her brothers Andrea and Roberto, and her husband Antonio (tel. 081-878-2038).

Hotel Minerva

Hotel Minerva is like a sun-worshipper's temple. Catch the elevator at Via Capo 32. Getting off on the fifth floor, you'll step into a spectacular terrace with outrageous Mediterranean views and a small, cliffhanging swimming pool and a cold-water Jacuzzi con vista complementing 60 large, tiled limoncello rooms (tel. 081-878-1011, fax 081-878-1949, minerva@acampora.it).

Ristorante il Buco

Ristorante il Buco, once the cellar of an old monastery, is now a small dressy restaurant serving delightfully presented, top-quality food under a grand, rustic arch ( II Rampa Marina Piccola 5; tel. 081-878-2354).

Raffaele Monetti

Fun-loving Carmello Monetti (a jolly, singing, in-love-with-life, grandfatherly type who speaks non-stop "inventive English"), his son Raffaele (much better English, fewer smiles, more information) and brother-in-law Tony (similar to Raffaele) have long taken excellent care of my readers' transportation needs from Sorrento. Their reservation system is simple, easygoing, and reliable (Raffaele's mobile 335-602-9158, Carmello's mobile 338-946-2860, "office" run by Raffaele's English-speaking wife, Susanna: fax 081-878-4795, monettitaxi17@libero.it).  Be careful: Many cabbies claim to be the Monettis. The Monettis drive Mercedes station wagon taxi #17, usually found at Sorrento's Piazza Tasso.

Paestum Ruins

Paestum (PASTE-oom) has one of the best collections of Greek temples anywhere — and certainly the most accessible to Western Europe. Serenely situated, it's surrounded by fields and wildflowers, and has a sandy beach and only a modest commercial strip. This town was founded as Poseidonia by Greeks in the sixth century b.c. and became a key stop on an important trade route. In the fifth century b.c., the Lucans, a barbarous inland tribe, conquered Poseidonia, changed its name to Paistom, and tried to adopt the cultured ways of the Greeks. The Romans, who took over in the third century b.c., gave Paestum the name it bears today. The final conquerors of Paestum, malaria-carrying mosquitoes, kept the site wonderfully deserted for nearly a thousand years. Rediscovered in the 18th century, Paestum today offers the only well-preserved Greek ruins north of Sicily.

Tourist Information: tel. 082-881-1016. Buses from Salerno stop near a corner of the ruins (at a little bar/café). Or, if you're arriving by train, exit the station and walk through the old city gate; the ruins are an eight-minute walk straight ahead.

Roberta Mazzarella

Local Guide Roberta Mazzarella is good (mobile 339-135-7619, robertamazzarella@yahoo.it).

Blue Grotto

Three thousand tourists a day spend a couple of hours visiting Capri's Blue Grotto. I did — early, without the frustration of crowds, and with choppy waves nearly making entrance impossible...and it was great. The actual cave experience isn't much: a five-minute dinghy ride through a three-foot-high entry hole to reach a 60-yard-long cave, where the sun reflects brilliantly blue on its limestone bottom. But the experience — getting there, getting in, and getting back — is a scenic hoot. You get a fast ride on a 30-foot boat partway around the gorgeous island, seeing bird life and dramatic limestone cliffs with scant narration. You'll understand why Roman emperors appreciated the invulnerability of the island — it's surrounded by cliffs, with only one access point, and therefore easy to defend. Then, at the grotto's "distribution center," you pile with mostly Japanese tourists into awaiting eight-foot dinghies, where ruffian rowers elbow their way to the tiny hole and pull fast and hard on the cable at the low point of the swells to squeeze you into the grotto. Then your man rows you around, spouting off a few descriptive lines and singing O Sole Mio. Depending upon the strength of the sunshine that day, the blue light inside is brilliant. Typically, they extort an extra tip out of you before taking you back outside to your big boat.

Updated for 2010.